Who would look dangerously up at planets that might look safely down at plants?

Monday, 31 December 2012

Simon Savage 1965-2012

Simon Savage with Carol Klein in Devon
(img. A. Byfield)

One of the sad points of 2012 was the death in September of Simon Savage (from cancer of practically everywhere). He was one of the old guard of galanthophiles, from long before snowdrops became fashionable, and he named quite a number of discoveries. Not all will be regarded as classics, but I have been impressed by the rather aptly named 'Shropshire Queen', a simple snowdrop resembling 'S. Arnott' but extremely vigorous and soon forming a very attractive clump. He was a good general plantsman, however, with particular interests in primroses, ferns and daffodils. He raised some lovely hybrids of early-flowering daffodils, which I hope will eventually be bulked-up and released. His garden at Church Farm, Wrockwardine, Shropshire, was full of interest but when the lease expired he took much of his stock to Devon, where a relationship and proposed nursery sadly failed to prosper. He returned to Shropshire and for the last few years found love with his partner Simon '2'.

Although I knew him for over twenty years we saw each other relatively infrequently, mostly at snowdrop time. Two memories stand out: a hilariously convivial evening at Church Farm with a pack of irreverent galanthophiles in full cry, and his courage and calm when I visited him for the last time in the Severn Hospice in August and we had a lovely talk about plants. He will be much missed.

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John Grimshaw's Garden Diary

A personal view of the world of horticulture and plants by a gardening botanist and author, living in Settrington, North Yorkshire, and working as Director of the Yorkshire Arboretum, a partnership between the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and Castle Howard.

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'Snowdrops, A Monograph of Cultivated Galanthus' Available from Griffin Press

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